Sunday, June 5, 2016

Urban Sprawl Week in Sarasota

This week the Sarasota County Commission will hold its hearings on proposals to severely weaken controls on developers.

Wednesday June 8, 1:30 pm

Friday June 10, 9 am

County Administration Center, 1660 Ringling Blvd.

The proposals are in an “Update” of the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan.

The changes have been proposed by County staff but made worse by the developer-packed Planning Commission.

The Wednesday hearing is on changes to the Environment Chapter and various others. The Friday hearing is on the Chapters for Land Use, Economic Development, Mobility and Public Utilities.

Among the bad amendments to the Environment Chapter is one which would eliminate a requirement for developers to cluster away from native habitat, and would instead merely “encourage” it.

The Land Use amendments would entirely repeal the current square footage size limits on commercial centers, allow residential density in some cases of 100 units per acre,while repealing provisions for affordable housing, and further encourage urban sprawl.

The Mobility amendments would encourage "road diets" which narrow existing roads and would repeal concurrency -- the requirement that developers do traffic studies and pay any proportionate share of needed road improvements which exceed impact fees.

The hearings are on transmittal of the amendments for state review for any impacts on critical state resources. They will come back for a final adoption hearing in October.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Our Mission

Citizens for Sarasota County is a coalition to promote ethical, responsive government that preserves and enhances Sarasota's unique natural environment and cultural heritage while building a sound local economy based on effective stewardship and innovation. Facebook conversation here.